no drugs for me this year... i committed myself to that after having some negative experiences in 2002.
This Burning Man was by far my best year... and I've attended since 2000. I had the most amazing time sober. Burning Man can definitely exist without it... at least for me now it does.

Last edited by dragonflyannie on Thu Sep 04, 2003 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have had past experiences where any amount of drugs do NOTHING to me. After realizing this waste of money, I have maintained sobriety at Burning Man. I think all the adrenaline burns right through any substances I ingest. From that, I have come to realize that BM is best done sober, allowing you to REMEMBER all the crazy things you saw and experienced.
How can you tell how amazing something is when you are on drugs? Everything is skewed to a psychedelic state anyway, drugs don't really do anything, for me anyway.

personally, I can't imagine wanting to drink a drop of alcohol in that extreme heat and low humidity. but hey, at least the blm won't bust you for it.

i think alcohol is the most destructive drug on the playa and alcohol was probably directly involved in the unneccessary deaths out there, but who am i to tell you what to do on or off the playa. at your own risk as always.

as for the question of whether bm would exist without drugs; your brain would not function without "drugs." not to get too pedantic or to put too fine a point on it but psylocibin for example is only cns active because of the way that it mimics the actually existing neurotransmitter serotonin. and a brain without serotonin is not a functioning brain. etc. etc. blah blah

First year ,96, I had a couple of hits off a joint or two that was offered to me ,second year the same,but ever since then I haven't felt the desire to partake in any drugs at the event ,even though I have been invited to ,or have had friends and others around me taking drugs.It's a overload of experiences and feelings for my senses,in other words I get high from being there.I do drink at night a couple of the nights there,not crazy train ,I'm on a mission to hell drinkin',but let's pull out the Amarula cream or Baja Rosa and some nice vodka or wine,ya know,kinda drinkin'.Even back home at parties(raves) I RARELY take mushrooms, we are talking 4 0r 5 x's in 10 years plus of raving.I think people assume alot about the amount of drugs that people take,someone could have looked at me over the years at BM and thought I was fucked- up high,just cause I was sooooo high from the experience of BEING there and acting like it.MAJOR POINT HERE,humans have been taking drugs since the beginning of time to enhance rituals and life experience, since BM is a major life experience involving many rituals,I seriously do not see any reason to wonder if this event would take place or not without the use of drugs.Study drug history,it is entertwined with religious and many believe,the intellectual evolution of humanity. If you are interested check out the Erowid site,go to Psychactive vaults,then to Basics and finally History,lots of drug history and many other cultural,medicinal, references and articles,and incidentally there are photos and such about BM on this site,who would've guessed??

ubu wrote:i think alcohol is the most destructive drug on the playa and alcohol was probably directly involved in the unneccessary deaths out there, but who am i to tell you what to do on or off the playa. at your own risk as always.

I've seen people do stupid shit on the playa on a variety of drugs. Picking out alcohol as the likely reason for the accidents on the playa with, oh, nothing to back it up just sounds like the tail end of a rant that you've already had.

It's as if saying that psychedelics and entheogens are all much better because they open up your mind while alcohol just closes it down. I'll admit that alcohol has its own problems, but I get tired of my friends telling me that the answer is in a pill or a plant.

I've done my own share of drugs and have given them up years ago. The same hypocrisy that so-called psychedelic gypsies rant against by doing non-traditional drugs is prevalent in drug culture as well. People are running into their own version of reality while denying the possibility of actually having valid spiritual experiences on their own.

As for safety on the playa, I think that getting fucked up on any drug can pose a problem and that the user needs to really know himself or herself. Time and time again, I've run into people who wandered out into the playa, tripping their face off, and they didn't bring any food, water, goggles, dust mask or anything. We had to practically drag one idiot back to safety.

Personally, i'm just tired of the whole "go to the desert and get fucked up" mentality. It can blur the already hazy lines into an impressionist painting, but it can also hold you back from realizing that, yes, this is actually happening.

yeah, previous years have always included some kind of hard substance. this year, which was one of my best years out there out of 5, was completely drug free. keeping in mind that i don't use the word to refer to pot or alcohol.

and i think that its very existance is a testiment to someone's use of drugs. i mean, i can't imagine BM being what it is without at least part of the Burner population being chemically out of their minds at some point.

the only thing BM couldn't exist without, is creative energy. perhaps some of the art was drug-fueled, perhaps some of the music was, many of the people were. they also ate food and took craps, sweated, danced, cried and loved, and did a lot of other things besides drugs (I do include alcohol and pot in my def of drugs). I left drugs out of my experience last year, and brought them in on a low level this year. It was not essential to my BM experience, but was an opening up of a different kind and I happened to be on the playa for it. The burning hypocratic oath should always rule: first, do no harm. absolutely, not to others; hopefully, not to yourself either.

I get tired and bored of drug talk these days. Burning man makes me feel high enough on pure wild creative energy. I'm pretty much high on my own accord, and I'm moving past the need to medicate myself to find a sense of love or acceptance with mind altering substances. In fact I get asked if I'm high often enough because i'm such a trip all on my own.

Well, this was my ninth burn, but my first one completely sober. No booze. No drugs. Nada. The verdict (in my experience) was that it was indeed the best burn I ever had. Though I have no judgement about other's uses (I am head of what could easily be considered the largest repository of alcohol on the playa, after all), I think using and drinking is simply a choice of how you wish to experience this great event. And it is great either way, as far as my experience goes.

Well, this was my ninth burn, but my first one completely sober. No booze. No drugs. Nada.

hey PINK MAN

good for you for sailing through successfully
w/out anything at all! I remember when we
were talking about this back in July. You did
it, and provide some inspiration for the rest
of us! I'm not quite ready to do the totally sober
thing yet but hope to get there in the next
couple years.

y'know...you really dont need them ( drugs ) this was my first burn, and yeah i took some stuff and drank alot .it didnt make my experience better or worse. But heres something to think about....just be in control, i read there was a man giving drugs to girls then rapeing them. learn from this and becareful. next year i dont think i will take anything to alter my state.

ubu wrote:personally, I can't imagine wanting to drink a drop of alcohol in that extreme heat and low humidity. but hey, at least the blm won't bust you for it.

Actually, I've come to enjoy watery American canned beer when in the desert. I used to live in the PNW and only drank good micros - beer that would kill you if you drank it all day in the heat.

i think alcohol is the most destructive drug on the playa and alcohol was probably directly involved in the unneccessary deaths out there, but who am i to tell you what to do on or off the playa. at your own risk as always.

Well, I'm going to have to say that I like drugs, dammit. They can be a legimitate tool for self-discovery, and combined with the atmosphere of burning man they can open up a whole lot of your mind. This year I learned some things about myself that I probably wouldn't have sober.

electrolux wrote:Well, I'm going to have to say that I like drugs, dammit. They can be a legimitate tool for self-discovery, and combined with the atmosphere of burning man they can open up a whole lot of your mind. This year I learned some things about myself that I probably wouldn't have sober.

Yeah, I'm with you to a degree. I tend to avoid staying stupid drunk all week -- now the meet-and-greet is an exception, of course -- and I lean more toward the self-discovery end of the spectrum. I really like adventuring out on the open playa, especially toward the trash fence. I have some great conversations with myselfs out there.

Unfortunately, some knucklehead with a noggin full of E or G can ruin the whole thing for me at times.

Good question.
The beauty of Burning Man is that you can do whatever the fuck you want, so long as you don't hurt other people. Drugs are optional. The folks who've posted who said they did the whole thing totally sober -- more power to them! The people who indulged responsibly -- more power to them! Personally, I was sober some nights, tripping others; it made a nice contrast. What really moved me was that on certain nights when I was really high, people treated me with a lot of kindness. I got confused onetime about who was next in line at the PortaPotty, and a guy let me go before him, sensing that I was completely oblivious. I appreciated it. Another time, I got so entranced by somebody's glowsticks and costume, I blocked them from walking. Realizing this, I apologized and extended my hand for them to walk forward. With great gentility, they extended their hand and let me pass first. This gesture was extremely kind and delivered with great benevolence. Maybe these small kindnesses sound, well, small, but to me they meant the world.

I tripped Tuesday, Thursday, and Sat. nights, and fell in love twice during my week of burning man. I would say the love sickness threw me a lot farther out of my everyday mind then the shrooms. It still does even now. For myself I never could understand people wanting to drink substantial quantities of alcohol, esp during the heat of the day. I trust most of us will practice moderation in all our substances, except of course, glowsticks and water, can never have to much of those.

It does exist without drugs, for an awful lot of people. Strangely it is the only place I feel like doing drugs though, I had a lovely time this year on liquid acid and mushrooms, fantastic trips. Taking drugs is like playing with fire, you can get burnt but if you respect the fire it will keep you warm, someone once said that in an interview regarding smack and it may sound trite but I believe to some extent it is true. There is nothing wrong with hallucinogenic drugs and The Playa is probably the perfect place to take them, if you know your limits and what you are doing. People go to the playa for all sorts of reasons, drugs can make the experience all the more vivid for an individual who chooses to do them. The point of the playa is radical self expression, drugs or no drugs - it couldn't exist without art, love and hard work, that is the bottom line.